Tag Archives: rule of law

Posted onFebruary 10, 2018|Comments Off on Advanced Certificate Program on Religion and the Rule of Law at Oxford

Honored to be serving on the International Academic Advisory Board of this exciting new Program.

‘The need for a global program to identify and educate the rising generation of scholars and leaders in the field of law and religion: Legal restrictions on religious individuals and groups remain high or very high in many countries of the world, and these official obstacles are often combined with social hostilities regarding religion that are increasing around the world. Sometimes these problems rise to the level of persecution of religious minorities, or even genocide, but more frequent are problems that arise from discrimination, social marginalization, and the ordinary problems of lawmaking, enforcement, adjudication, and regulation.’

On June 26th, a small workshop on comparative law & religion will take place with Dr. Jaclyn Neo (National University of Singapore, Law School). Jaclyn is a very well-published scholar in the field of comparative public law and human rights, particularly in the field of law and religion (see bio below). She studied at Yale Law School (LLM, JSD) and she is an Assistant Professor of Public Law at the National University of Singapore. She is an innovative thinker and a wonderful speaker. On June 26, Jaclyn will present one of her most recent papers and engage with her audience’s questions. Hans-Martien Ten Napel will act as discussant and Sofia Fernandes Da Silva Ranchordás will chair the workshop. Both colleagues and students are welcome!

You can register for the workshop by sending an email to Sofia, preferably by June 10. Should you be interested in presenting a recent paper, pitching your PhD research or discussing a new research idea on law and religion or freedom of expression so as to receive some feedback from an expert in this field, please let Sofia know. Due to time constraints, only 2-3 additional presentations can be accepted.

During the last decade or so the discipline of constitutional law has changed considerably. It has become more comparative, interdisciplinary and theoretical. What has not happened yet, however, is that constitutional lawyers have become more (openly) aware of their philosophical presuppositions. Thus, it is still commonplace for central concepts of the discipline, such as the rule of law, to be treated as if they do not at least partly have their historical roots in religions like Christianity, or as if such religions currently no longer have anything to contribute to these concepts.

This is remarkable, given that for example Michel Rosenfeld has had to concede ‘that there is no consensus on what “the rule of law” stands for, even if it is fairly clear what it stands against. An important part of the problem is that “the rule of law” is an “essentially contestable concept,” with both descriptive and prescriptive content over which there is a lack of widespread agreement.’

In light of the above, the proposed paper will depart from the idea that the concept of the rule of law is somehow intimately connected with Western liberal tradition. As Michael W. McConnell has argued, the history of liberalism in turn goes back further than the Enlightenment of the 18th century. It is probably more accurate to regard the 16th century Reformation as having given rise to liberalism, with its emphasis on the idea of individual conscience.

McConnell has also elaborated upon the similarities between some of the core doctrines of liberalism and particular Christian theological principles. Of these different connections, the one between the notion of limited government and the idea of the separation of church and state will be singled out, i.e. libertas ecclesiae or the ‘freedom of the church’. As McConnell puts it, ‘[i]n this view, religious freedom comes into being not as a result of ontological individualism but as a result of the jurisdictional separation between these two sets of authorities. (…) While theological in its origin, the two-kingdoms idea lent powerful support to a more general liberal theory of government. The separation of church from state is the most powerful possible refutation of the notion that the political sphere is omnicompetent – that it has rightful authority over all of life. If the state does not have power over the church, it follows that the power of the state is limited.’

The proposed paper will argue that this prescriptive meaning ascribed to the concept of rule of law by Christianity takes on a renewed relevance at a time when sovereignty claims by religious institutions are increasingly regarded by their critics as incompatible with the idea of state sovereignty being the only legitimate source of sovereignty. Thus, it is unfortunately presented as if a clear choice will need to be made between the jurisdictional approach to religious freedom and the modern liberal view that sees sovereignty within the liberal democratic state as essentially monistic in nature.

Comments Off on Paper Presentation during Journal of Law, Religion & State International Conference on ‘The Rule of Law – Religious Perspectives’, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 20-22 November 2016

Posted onAugust 25, 2016|Comments Off on Upcoming Speaking Engagement, Journal of Law, Religion & State International Conference: Rule of Law – Religious Perspectives, Bar-Ilan University School of Law, Ramat-Gan, Israel

‘The encounter of religion with the rule of law may generate tension but also mutual inspiration. The rule of law implies law’s supremacy over other normative systems and personal commitments. It also implies that law applies to everyone equally. Religion represents a normative system that may in some areas be different from – and stand in opposition to – state law. Religion may deny the supremacy of state law and pose divine law as supreme instead. It may, alternatively, seek exemptions from state law in those matters where the two conflict.

TOPICS: In this conference we seek to study this tension and discuss the following questions:
– Does religion (in general or a specific religion) accept the rule of state law?
– What are the boundaries (if any) of such acceptance?
– In what cases would religion challenge state law and in what cases would it seek exemptions?
– Can a policy of multiculturalism and of legal pluralism, which give more room to religious freedom, be reconciled with the rule of law or does it undermine it?
– What other policies should states follow in response to these tensions?

Religion may not only compete with state law but also inspire it, which leads us to investigate religion’s various understandings of the rule of law. Here is just one example. The concept of law in the context of the rule of law is ambiguous and open to different interpretations. Some (positivists) understand law as a set of rules fixed by social institutions, and others (natural law advocates) understand law as if it includes fundamental principles of justice and morality. Religions may take a position in that debate and contribute not only to the abstract understanding of law, but also to the identification of those moral principles that are part of law. We therefore also plan to explore the following:
– What is the position of religion with regard to the concept of law and the rule of law?
– Many religions developed partial or comprehensive legal systems of their own. Did religions also develop a concept of rule of law? What is its scope and meaning?
– The concept of rule of law also may be used in theological context as a metaphor to understand the boundaries of divine actions and intervention in the world. Is God constrained by law – and by what kind of law: law of nature, morality?

These and similar questions will be discussed in an international conference that will be held at Bar-Ilan University School of Law, Ramat-Gan, Israel, on November 20-22, 2016.’

The first panel was entitled ‘The Rule of Law in Europe: Structural Weaknesses in the European Legal Order’:

‘Among europe’s many crises, the “rule of law” crisis is perhaps the most destructive of europe’s common values. some Member states that met the copenhagen criteria to enter the EU would now not be admitted to the EU under those same criteria. what can european institutions do to renew commitments on the part of the Member states to these values?

The above picture was taken during the presentation by Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton).

Posted onJanuary 13, 2016|Comments Off on Chapter in volume on Religion, Politics and Law. Philosophical Reflections on the Sources of Normative Order in Society (2009)

‘Modern, liberal democracies in the West living under the rule of law and protection of human rights cannot articulate the very values from which they derive their legitimacy. These pre-political and pre-legal preconditions cannot be guaranteed, let alone be enforced by the state, but constitute nevertheless its moral and spiritual infrastructure. Until recently, a common background and horizon consisted in Christianity, but due to secularisation and globalisation, society has become increasingly multicultural and multireligious. The question can and should be raised how religion relates to these sources of normative order in society, how religion, politics and law relate to each other, and how social cohesion can be attained in society, given the growing varieties of religious experiences. In this book, a philosophical account of this question is carried out, on the one hand historically from Plato to the Enlightenment, on the other hand systematically and practically.’

My own chapter, co-authored with Florian H. Karim Theissen, is entitled ‘Taking Pluralism Seriously: The US and the EU as Multicultural Democracies’.

Language: The Conference will be conducted in English and Putonghua. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided during the conference.

Organizer: The Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (RCCL), School of Law, City University of Hong Kong

Conference Objectives

The objectives of the conference include three facets generally. The first objective is to provide a platform for scholars from different areas, and make the dialogue much more diverse and fruitful. Accompanied with much more openness of Greater China, more and more dialogues are needed for understandings and agreements among one another. The theme on the rule of law with Chinese characteristics is such a one needed to be explored and discussed for the future of China.

The second is to focus on this theme from comparative perspectives, get consensus on the pros and cons of the features of the rule of law with the so-called Chinese characteristics in transition so as to keep these characteristics, follow the track of the rule of law and arrive at Chinese rule of law eventually.

The third is to bridge the communications between China (including Hong Kong, Mainland China, Macau and Taiwan), North America, Europe, Australia and other countries and regions, so as to make Hong Kong academia know much more about the recent intellectual developments in these relevant areas. This would make the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong more open and leading in these areas potentially.

Issues to be explored during the conference:

(1) The rule of law with Chinese characteristics from comparative perspectives
(2) The rule of law in transition from historical and comparative perspectives
(3) Particular legal systems with Chinese characteristics in the practice
(4) Confucian constitutionalism, authoritarianism and the global constitutionalism
(5) Religious freedom and the moral foundations of the rule of law with Chinese characteristics from comparative perspectives
(6) Human rights protection and democracy with Chinese characteristics in comparison’

About me

Hans-Martien ten Napel, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he is also Research Fellow of the Leiden Law School and Affiliated Member of the Center for the Study of Political Parties and Representation. In addition, he is a Member of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. Before his transfer to the law faculty, he taught at a Department of Political Science and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).

He teaches the Bachelor of Laws elective course on the Law of Democracy and a Master of Laws elective course on Comparative Constitutional Law and served as a coach on the extracurricular Leiden Leadership Programme. In addition, he is currently co-supervising three Ph.D. projects.

In 2014 he was awarded a Research Fellowship in Legal Studies at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, which enabled him to be in full-time residence at CTI for the academic year 2014-2015. In 2017 he received a ‘seed money grant for frontier research’ from the Leiden profile area Interaction Between Legal Systems.

His work has appeared in European Constitutional Law Review, European Public Law, Journal of Interreligious Studies, Journal of Markets and Morality, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights and Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He was also co-editor and co-author of two recent volumes, Regulating Political Parties: European Democracies in Comparative Perspective (2014) and The Powers That Be. Rethinking the Separation of Powers (2015).

Since 2015, he is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Religie, Recht en Beleid(Journal of Religion, Law, and Policy). In 2017, he published, as the fruit of his research fellowship, the monograph Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom. To Be Fully Human (Routledge).

‘Abstract As Smith points out, the genealogy of liberal democracy demonstrates that liberalism is nothing less than the prodigal son of Christianity. Thus, it becomes plausible that Christianity has a continuing role to play in a liberal democracy. Smith might … Continue reading →

On 6-7 June 2019, I will be participating in the above conference. My presentation is entitled ‘The Codification of an Expanding Number of Human Rights and the Ideal of Self-Government.’ During the presentation, I will, among other things, discuss the … Continue reading →

Looking forward to participating in the above international and interdisciplinary conference, School of Divinity, New College, Edinburgh, 2-3 September 2019. The description of the conference theme reads as follows: ‘Is populism on the rise? Across the political spectrum, populism is … Continue reading →

UPDATE: Beautiful place to give a guest talk this morning: The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Distress in Heiloo, North-Holland. The lecture was on “Natural Law, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom.” The audience consisted of a group of talented leaders … Continue reading →